Saving Hope Season 3 Episode 13 “Narrow Margin” Recap

Update on the Alex Baby Daddy poll from last week. Joel 45.83% of the votes. Charlie is at 44.79% and Clark Kent is at 9.38%. If you are a Smallville fan like I am and the reason why I love Erica Durance, will get why I made Clark a choice. It stems from a line that Lois tells Clark in the season 10 episode “Scion” where Lois mentions how when (and she says when not if) they have kids of their own that Clark would make an amazing father.

But I digress. Speaking of Alex’s baby daddy, lets start with those two.

Joel and Charlie

The two men are in the Hope Zion elevator. They talk about Alex’s decision to wait till the baby is born to get a paternity test. Both men are impatient but agree to Alex wishes and be patient for her sake.

Later at the doctors lounge, Charlie asks Joel to switch a surgery with him but he is distracted by his upcoming trial but Joel agrees to get his mind off of his troubles.

In the ER, Charlie goes to see a mute patient, a Cambodian lady named Sue. A young woman is with her and tells Charlie that she doesn’t talk and only wants to see Joel. Charlie tries to treat her but finds Sue’e teeth are falling out. Sue turns out to be a patient of Joel’s at the clinic and when he examines her, he finds a tumor on the roof of her mouth that has also made it difficult for her to breathe. Charlie asks Zach about what happened to the young woman who was with Sue. Zach says that Sue came in alone. Of course the woman would be a spirit.

Later Charlie and Joel tell Sue the bad news that they can’t operate on the tumor without doing damage to her hard palate. The doctors ask Sue who they can call. The young woman mentions her son and Charlie asks if that is who they want to call. Sue nods yes and Joel wonders how he knew. Charlie lies and says he got that information from the admission chart. We learn the woman is Jen and is Sue’s sister and been with her 40 years. Jen died escaping Cambodia and the reason Jen is still with Sue is Sue had to eat her to survive. Jen also tells Charlie of Sue’s son and how she had him after she came to Canada but he was taken away from her. The son is now grown up and could take care of her and it would mean a lot to her.

Joel gets inspired by something Zach says about another patient and realizes he can use Sue’s scapula to reconstruct her hard palate. Joel goes over with the team what to do. Charlie says that Sue has an 8% chance of survival but believes Sue will live.

Just before heading into surgery Joel’s lawyer calls but Charlie needs Joel so he tells the nurse to call the lawyer back. It is a fascinating surgery seeing Charlie and Joel remove the mouth tumor. The good news is the two are successful in taking the whole tumor out. Charlie gets ready to take the scapula out when Joel get call from lawyer, who takes the call and wonders if he is going to trial

Sue is recovering in the ICU, Charlie tells her she will be ok and tells Jen that that she can leave. But Jen won’t as who will take care of her and watch over her. Later Sue’s son comes and tells his mom he is there for her and I got a bit teary eyed. And Jen spirit has left.

In the ambulance bay, Joel tells Charlie over cans of Heineken that video surveillance footage has cleared him so he won’t go to trial. But Joel still feels bad over killing a man. Charlie sits with him to lend an ear and a new bromance is born.

Zach

Mal has missed Zach and is all flirty with him about paint balling (euphemism for sex) but Zach is distant and brushes Mal off, who notices him limping funny. Zach patient is Bernice, a stripper complaining of abdominal pain and wants doctor note for workers comp so she won’t have to go back to the strip club. Bernice’s now ex-boyfriend is a bartender there and was cheating on her and scamming her and playing the same game with other girls there.

The ultrasound finds nothing and neither does her blood work comes. After Bernice throws up on Zach’s favourite pair of shoes, he asks what did she drink the night before. Zach realizes boyfriend poisoned her with antifreeze that has methanol. The treatment is an ethanol drip but Jackson says Hope-Zion doesn’t keep an ethanol drip so Zach gets him to find some or Bernice will go into liver failure.

Zach gives Bernice some vodka to counteract the methanol. Bernice sees that Zach is distracted and he admits he thinks he has prostate cancer. Zach had a biopsy two days ago and that is why he is distracted and distant. Bernice surmises he is worried about the side effects of treatment on his sex life. We see Zach get the results but we don’t know what it is yet but we see him walk the halls of Hope Z taking off his tie, lab coat, untucks his shirt and unbuttons it. We see a half naked Zach (nice body there Benjamin Ayers) pay Mal a visit in the on call room. Zach admits he was afraid to tell Mal that he thought he had cancer but tells her he is clean and the two proceed to get it on in the on-call room.

Bernice is also okay after getting the ethanol drip and Zach shares he will be okay too. Zach gives her the doctor note and tells her to call the cops to arrest her ex. Later, Zach goes back to Mal in the on-call room and the two cuddle.

Alex

A very pregnant Alex is about to step into a surgery with Maggie when Katz stops her. Katz is worried about the radiation in the operating room and how it might harm the baby. Alex insists she will be fine but Katz insists she takes it easy, doctor’s order and assigns her to do paper work. As Alex is doing said paper work, she tells Maggie that she is bored so Maggie suggests she go for a walk.

Alex ends up taking a hike in the woods and talks to Shahir who is a worry wort about her walking alone in the woods and asks her to be careful.

On her walk, Alex sees a golden retriever and a cry for help from a teen boy who is stuck under a huge log. Sam is the young teens and and his trusty dog is Farrow. Sam was out for a trail run the night before and storm blew down a tree onto him. Sam’s leg is broken so while Alex puts it in a splint gets him to tell a little bit about himself. Sam says he is allergic to peanuts and discusses things he likes such as Andy Samberg and talks about why likes running. Alex leaves to get better cell reception but before going gets Farrow to lie down on Sam to keep him warm.

Alex does find a signal and manages to call an ambulance before getting cut off. When Alex returns she finds Sam unable to stay awake as he is hypothermic. To keep him awake and his blood pressure up, Alex uses his epi pen. Eventually the epi pen does run out and Sam starts to fade so he asks Alex to tell his dad that he forgives him for leaving him but Alex is having none of it.

The ambulance does arrive and Sam is rescued. The paramedics want to take Sam to the closest hospital but Alex says that hospital don’t have the proper staff on hand to treat him, Before getting in the ambulance, Sam goes into cardiac arrest but eventually comes back and is taken to Hope Zion, after Alex convinces the EMT to do so.

Shahir will be operating on Sam for his spinal injury while Alex will deal with his leg and the two discuss the best course of action.

The surgery goes fine and when Alex emerges, Katz insists on a full body scan on Alex because of the stress of the day. During the scan, the baby is fine and healthy. We also learn the sex of the baby and Alex is having a boy (Erica Durance is having a boy too).

Alex is by Sam’s side when he wakes up and tells him is ok. Sam wiggles is toes to make sure. Sam’s mom is with him while he recovers and his wayward father comes to visit him too.

Later in doctors lounge, Alex tells Shahir that she is having a boy. Shahir offers congratulations. And while Alex works out her baby daddy drama, Shahir volunteers to do all the stuff the father of the baby would do during Alex’s pregnancy like going to lamaze classes with her. Alex happily accepts and when Shahir asks how mother and surgeon Alex Reid feels, Alex says she feels like herself.

Next week we get to meet Joel’s father and we see how contentious that relationship. Let’s see if that encounter might give Joel some perspective in being a potential father himself.